Evangelical Leaders Overwhelmingly Endorse Rick Santorum

(Photo: REUTERS/Jason Reed)

Republican presidential candidate and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is pictured with members of his family as he is introduced during a campaign stop at the Beaufort Yacht and Sailing Club in South Carolina January 12, 2012. The South Carolina Primary will be held on January 21.

Key evangelical and conservative Christian leaders have given their overwhelming backing on Saturday to endorse Rick Santorum for the Republican presidential nomination.

While no one knew what to expect in the lead up to the Texas meeting involving such leaders as James Dobson and Gary Bauer, what is being described as a "landslide majority" ended up voting to rally behind Santorum, a Catholic.

In the third round of secret ballots, Santorum received 85 of the 114 votes cast while Newt Gingrich garnered 29 votes.

“I will have to admit that what I did not think was possible appears to be possible," Tony Perkins of Family Research Council said in an official release from the vote.

He noted that the conservative Christian leaders are clearly unified as they seek to impact the GOP race.

The influential leaders met at the ranch of former legislator and judge Paul Pressler beginning Friday to come to a decision "before it was too late."

Their meeting comes just a week before South Carolina's Jan. 21 primary.

“There is a hope and an expectation that this will have an impact on South Carolina,” Perkins said in the official release.

The evangelicals' top concerns going into this year's presidential election include repealing President Obama's health care overhaul, the national debt and abortion.

Santorum, viewed as a true social conservative, has also won the endorsement of The Family Leader President and CEO Bob Vander Plaats and most recently Maggie Gallagher, former chairman of the Board of the National Organization for Marriage.

"What moved me most are the words Rick Santorum used to 'connect the dots' – to explain why support for marriage, for life, and for an economy that provide the dignity of jobs to average Americans are not three separate things. They are bound together by principles – by American principles," Gallagher said.

An embargo has been agreed and put in place by the Christian leaders, and no further information will be released by those who attended the meeting until 24 hours following today's initial release from Tony Perkins.